The corporate owner of the Chicago Cubs is considering having the baseball team file for bankruptcy protection as a legal step to hasten its long-awaited sale, according to two people with knowledge of the process.

Tribune Co., which itself filed for bankruptcy protection in December, intends for the Cubs’ own stay in Chapter 11 to be as short as a day or two.

If pursued, the filing would be done to give the team’s next owners as “clean” a title to the Cubs as possible — to protect them from any future claims by Tribune creditors.